Paterlini-Bréchot Patrizia
Université Paris Descartes, Pavillon Leriche, 75014, Paris, France,
Cancer Microenviron. 2014 Dec;7(3):161-76. doi: 10.1007/s12307-014-0164-4. Epub 2014 Dec 20.
This article is a critical note on the subject of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC). It takes into account the tumor identity of Circulating Tumor Cells as cancer seeds in transit from primary to secondary soils, rather than as a "biomarker", and considers the help this field could bring to cancer patients. It is not meant to duplicate information already available in a large number of reviews, but to stimulate considerations, further studies and development helping the clinical use of tumor cells isolated from blood as a modern personalized, non-invasive, predictive test to improve cancer patients' life. The analysis of CTC challenges, methodological bias and critical issues points out to the need of referring to tumor cells extracted from blood without any bias and identified by cytopathological diagnosis as Circulating Cancer Cells (CCC). Finally, this article highlights recent developments and identifies burning questions which should be addressed to improve our understanding of the domain of CCC and their potential to change the clinical practice.
本文是一篇关于循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）主题的批判性述评。它将循环肿瘤细胞的肿瘤特性视为从原发部位转移至继发部位途中的癌种，而非一种“生物标志物”，并探讨了该领域能为癌症患者带来的帮助。其目的并非重复大量综述中已有的信息，而是激发思考、推动进一步研究与发展，助力将从血液中分离出的肿瘤细胞作为一种现代个性化、非侵入性的预测性检测手段应用于临床，以改善癌症患者的生活。对CTC挑战、方法学偏差及关键问题的分析指出，有必要毫无偏差地提及从血液中提取并经细胞病理学诊断鉴定为循环癌细胞（CCC）的肿瘤细胞。最后，本文突出了近期的进展，并确定了一些亟待解决的关键问题，以增进我们对CCC领域的理解及其改变临床实践的潜力。
